5 comments:

Keith Moon - along with Ringo (yes Ringo!) - the drummer who completely changed the face, the style - and certainly the visibility - of rock-n-roll drummers. Moon was amazing until his demons overwhelmed his talents and ultimately - him - completely. I highly recommend watching "30 Years of Maximum R&B", "The Kids Are Alright", "Live at the Isle of Wight" or the latest "Amazing Journey" to see just how great he was in his prime.

Many interesting notes about the Smothers Brothers appearance you've posted - 1) The Who resort to their 'auto-destructive' finale - smashing their instruments, etc. They had stopped this, for the most part, by 1967 in England and Europe.This was their first - and for the longest time - their ONLY live US television appearance.

2) Moon loaded his bass drum (obviously) with much more flash powder than normal (according to legend - he bribed a stagehand with copious amounts of brandy to do so) and when it ignited - it literally exploded like a bomb.

3) it temporarily deafened Townshend who was standing right in front of it as it went off. Notice his hair - it's singed and in the pattern of the blast. It also sent a piece of cymbal 'shrapnel' into Moon's arm (notice him coming back onto the stage, holding his arm, screaming and falling on the floor)

4) the explosion destroyed one TV camera and blew out the monitors in the studio.

5) Bette Davis and Mickey Rooney were backstage as they were guests for the show that night. Bette Davis fainted into Rooney's arms as result of the explosion.

Leave it to Keith Moon to make this kind of impact on the Who's first live US TV appearance. What's amazing is how forgotten it was until Jeff Stein discovered the clips when piecing together "The Kids Are Alright" - according to Stein, when he showed the Who a short preview of the film - with this clip as the centerpiece - they, along with their wives, were literally falling over each other in laughter. Townshend was on top of Moon yelling "that's where you blew out my hearing". Stein knew he was doing a good job after that reaction.

...I usually get laughed at, but...my favorite vocalist of The Beatles is.....Ringo. Seriously. One of the first LPs I ever owned, when I was 6 or 7, was his 'big' album - with 'You're Sixteen', 'Photograph', and 'Oh My My'...most of the tunes were written (and performed) by all of the members of The Beatles, but with Ringo at vocals throughout, of course... guess I 'grew up' with it, so those tunes are...comforting, ya know?

anyway - here's to Moonie the Loonie (isn't that what somebody somewhere called him?) Anyone who gave Led Zep it's name HAS to be top shelf, right? And could you imagine Moon and John Bonham in the same bar? talk about cleaning house!!!

Vote For Alternate Oscars!

Search This Blog

What are the Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards?

Named for Katie-Bar-The-Door, the Katies are "alternate Oscars"—who should have been nominated, who should have won—but really they're just an excuse to write a history of the movies from the Silent Era to the present day.

To see a list of nominees and winners by decade, as well as links to my essays about them, click the highlighted links:

The Silent Oscars

About Me

Look at me—Joe College, with a touch of arthritis. Are my eyes really brown? Uh, no, they're green. Would we have the nerve to dive into the icy water and save a person from drowning? That's a key question. I, of course, can't swim, so I never have to face it. Say, haven't you anything better to do than to keep popping in here early every morning and asking a lot of fool questions?